NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-08-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Senate Democrats say they're offering a compromise to reopen the government, but Republican Senate leader John Thune says it's a non-starter. NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a proposal to reopen the government with a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits. Those credits are set to expire at the end of the year and have been central to this government shutdown. Most Democratic senators have been holding out on voting to fund the government

until Republicans agree to extend those credits. Schumer also proposed establishing a bipartisan committee to negotiate on long-term health care reforms. Republicans want to address health care subsidies after the government reopens. Any deal in the Senate would also have to pass the House, which remains out of town. Barbara Sprint and Peer News, the Capitol. Senators remain on Capitol Hill. They're working through the weekend for the first time since the government shut down more than a month ago. The Supreme Court has issued an administrative stay that temporarily blocks a lower court order, forcing the Trump administration to pay out full SNAP benefits this month.

Millions of low-income Americans remain in limbo this weekend, but SNAP recipients in Oregon, California, Wisconsin, and other states are now receiving their full November benefits anyway. The states are using their own funds for those payments. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Kyra Buckley has more. More than 700,000 Oregon residents woke up to full EBT accounts on Friday. That includes 70-year-old Linda Simon and Eugene, who gets $133 per month. I am one grateful woman. She says the back and forth on if she would get her benefits has weighed heavily on her mind the last couple weeks. She felt tired and was losing hope.

Now I feel a little more energized. You know, I feel like I got a dopamine hit in my brain. Simon plans to restock her kitchen with milk, bread, fruit, and the makings for a good pot, a vegetable soup. For NPR news, I'm Kyra Buckley in Portland. Both UPS and FedEx say they've grounded their fleets of the type of aircraft involved in this week's deadly crash in Louisville. NPR's Matt Bloom reports on the decision that came at the recommendation of the plane's manufacturer. The plane involved was a McDonald-D-11, a type of long-haul airliner. manufactured in the 90s and mostly used by cargo companies. They make up about 9% of UPS's fleet and

4% of FedEx's. UPS said in a statement that it made the decision to ground its MD-11 planes out of an abundance of caution and at the direction of the company that made them. Federal investigators are still determining the exact cause of the Louisville crash. Videos of the plane show its left engine and wing ablaze as it attempted to take off down the runway. The engine fell from the wing during takeoff. Matt Bloom, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Airlines have mostly stayed on schedule,

but delays at the nation's airports are expected to worsen this weekend because of the government shutdown. According to the flight tracking website, Flight Aware, more than 750 flights have been canceled so far today, with nearly 400 flights delayed as airlines comply with the Federal Aviation Administration ordered to reduce service. Officials say the order is intended to keep air travel, save air traffic controllers, have gone without paychecks for nearly a month.

Scientist James Watson has died. He was 97. Watson co-discovered the structure of DNA. NPR's Nell Greenfield, Boyce reports his life was full of fame and controversy. James Watson was not yet 25 years old back in 1953, when he and Francis Crick piece together clues to figure out the chemical structure of DNA. This historic breakthrough revealed how one molecule could encode so much of life's complexity. Watson's memoir about the discovery was a bestseller, but the book and Watson got a lot of criticism for the shoddy treatment of Rosalind Franklin,

a scientist who did key lab research that Watson and Crick relied on. Watson spent his entire career advancing DNA science, but he spent his later years effectively shunned by researchers in the field he pioneered after he made prejudiced remarks about black people, women, and others. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. And I'm Jail Snyder. This is NPR News.